Texting Surpasses In-Person Communication as Favorite Among Teens

A group of teens look at a photograph they took on a smartphone in Times Square in New York City on Dec. 1, 2017. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

September 10, 2018By Ivan Pentchoukov

Text messaging is now the most popular form of communication among teenagers, according to a survey conducted by Common Sense.

Teenagers overwhelmingly preferred in-person communication six years ago, with almost one in two saying it was their favorite way of communicating in 2012.

But face-to-face conversations have given way to text messages as the preferred form of communication among teens in 2018, with 32 percent of teens saying they favor in-person communication and 35 percent saying they prefer text messages.

The decline in face-to-face communication occurred as smartphones became ubiquitous among teens. In 2012, 41 percent of teens had a smartphone. That number skyrocketed by 2018, with 89 percent of teens reporting that they have a smartphone.

Video-chatting and social media are also growing more prevalent. Sixteen percent of teens said social media is their favorite way of communicating in 2018, compared to 7 percent saying so in 2012. Only 2 percent of teenagers said video-chatting was their favorite way of connecting with others in 2012. Five times as many teens said they favored video-chatting over other forms of communication in 2018.

Twice as many teens are on social media in 2018 compared to six years ago. Seventy percent of teens are using social media multiple times a day. Snapchat is the app of choice, with 4 in 10 teens calling the app their main social media site. Instagram and Facebook scored second and third, with 22 percent and 15 percent reporting the apps as their social media mainstay.

“Social media platforms are central to every aspect of teens’ lives, from how they stay in touch with friends to how they engage with politics,” Common Sense wrote in a statement accompanying the report.

“And constantly refreshing their social feeds can feel simultaneously positive and negative: Teens say social media strengthens their relationships but also distracts them from in-person connection.”

Nearly three in four teens said they believed that social media apps are manipulating them to spend more time on their smartphones. More than half said that their parents would be much more worried about social media if they knew what happens on the platforms.